Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Auction is market mechanism by which buyers make bids and sellers place offers. It is characterized by the competitive and dynamic nature by which the final price is reached. Auctions can rapidly disposal of items that needs liquidation or a quick sale, they offer trading opportunities for both buyers and sellers that are not available in conventional channels and they ensure cautious execution of contracts.
Types of auctions are traditional auctions, electronic auctions, dynamic pricing, English auctions, Yankee auctions, Dutch auctions, free-fall auctions, sealed-bid first-price auction and sealed-bid second-price auction. The most popular type of auctions is an electronic auction (e-auctions) which means auctions conducted online.
The largest Internet auctioneer is eBay which has introduced several measures in an effort to reduce fraud. Following are action to prevent e-auction fraud:

1. User identity verification such in IC number, driver’s license number or date of birth. For example, verified eBay user, the voluntary program, encourages users to supply eBay with information for online verification.

2. Authentication service. It is to determine whether an item is genuine and described appropriately. It difficult to perform because their training and experience, experts can detect counterfeits based on subtle detail.

3. Grading services which is a way to determine the physical condition of an item, such as ‘poor quality’ or ‘mint condition’. Different item have different grading systems. For example, trading cards are graded from A1 to F1, while coins are graded from poor to perfect uncirculated.

4. Feedback forum. It allows buyers and sellers to build up their online trading reputations. It provides user with ability to comment on their experiences with other.

5. Insurance policy. For example, eBay offers insurance underwritten, users are covered up to $200, will with a $25 deductible. The program is provided at no cost to eBay user.

6. Escrow services. Both buyers and sellers in a deal are protected with an independent third party. Buyer mails the payment to escrow services which verifies the payment and alerts the seller when everything checks out. An example of a provider of online escrow services s i-Escrow.

7. Non-payment punishment. To protect sellers, a friendly warning for first-time nonpayment. A sterner warning is for second-time offense, with a 30 day suspension for a third offense and an indefinite suspension for a fourth offense.

8. Appraisal services which use a variety of methods to appraise items. It includes expert assessment of authenticity and condition, and reviewing what comparable items have sold for in the marketplace in recent months.

9. Item verification which is a way of confirm he identity and evaluate the condition of an item. Third parties will evaluate and identify an item through a variety of means. For example, some collectors have their item “DNA tagged” for identification purpose. It provides a way of tracking an item if it charges ownership in future.

10. Physical inspection. It can eliminate many problems especially for collectors’ item.

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

Nowadays, people can limit their spending with their prepaid cash card that load funds onto the card and use the money.Obopay, one of the prepaid cash cards that are similar as debit cards because both are using existing money rather than borrowing. However, personal identification number has to be keyed in for the transaction to be authorized if using prepaid cash cards. It is considered as most secure and safe financial transaction card because can it likes a portable access point to checking account. Nevertheless, it could not use for online shopping and in “quick pay” terminals that have a card reader but no keypad to enter a personal identification number.

Pre-paid Vista Cash Card is issued by Four Oaks Bank & Trust Company that given the opportunity for consumers with poor credit record and young children by not spending more than the balance on the card. Visa permits travelers access to money at automated teller machines in 65 countries and book the train tickets by offering prepaid cash card such as Metro Card in New York City.

Touch ‘n Go (TnG) smart card is used by Malaysian for electronic payment system to toll expressway and highway. It is expanding its business to retail purchase by starting with fast food industry that enables consumers to buy dough nut, burger or fast-food from 21 outlets such as Burger King, 7-Eleven, Dunkin’ Donut. It is imitating the success of Hong Kong’s Octopus Card by setting 5 to 10% of the card holders for retail purchase as current target of the company.

Octopus Card was launched in Hong Kong on year 1997, September. It is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card to transfer electronic payments in online in offline system. It is widely used in payment system for transportation, supermarkets, fast food restaurant, car parks and other pint of sale application such as service station s and vending machines that have achieved good outcomes.

Review a local e-commerce site

E-commerce covers the online activities inducing Internet users to purchase products and services online. AirAsia is one of the companies that provide local e-commerce website. It leads as a cost leadership in the industry.

It provide difference online services in its own website such as booking ticket, information about destination, shopping chat, travel services, corporate services and so on. It allows customers from around the world to gain more information about them and its products. Potential customers can browse online catalogues without having to leave their homes or offices.

Moreover, AirAsia also provide latest news about the famous places in the travel services categories. It also very care about those users that from different level, different background and those use different language so it provide different language to be selected by the users. It makes them feel more comfortable by using their own language. When talking about the colour and fonts selections, it using red colour as a main colour and font word design. It can attract the user who browse Airasia web page either for who view it at first time or for those regular user. Sometime it have advertise promotion appear in the web page, so the customers will know the latest promotion price or packages.

Furthermore, customer can book the ticket through this website http://booking.airasia.com/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi . Customer can fill in the detail such as date, number of guest, the destination and whether you want to one way or return. In the booking categories, it also provide more information about the way of online payment. Through the shopping chat, AirAsia offers a choice of credit cards to fit the needs of your lifestyle in different countries such as AirAsia-Citibank Credit Card and AirAsia-Citibank Gold Card are offer for Malaysia guest. In the conclusion, Air Asia is a famous local e-commerce in Malaysia. Most of the local customers like to fly with Air Asia plane because it provide a clear picture and information to the customers and it contribute a concept to everyone, which is “Everyone can Fly"

refer to:


http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/home.jsp

Corporate Blogging: A New Marketing Communication Tool For Companies

A corporate blogging is a blog published by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization’s goals. Corporate blogging are giving established companies and obscure brands alike the ability to connect with their audiences on a more personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback and foster strengthened business relationships. More importantly, these companies are enjoying tangible returns in their blogging investment in the form of increased sales, partnerships, business opportunities, press coverage and lead generation.

In marketing terms, a corporate blogging can bring a human personality to a faceless company, which can create a connection between the corporation and the client. This can lead to deeper loyalty and richer feedback. As of February 2008, over 10% of Fortune 500 companies use corporate blogging as a marketing tool. Why? It is because corporate blogging provides an opportunity for businesses small and large to engage and interact with customers.

Corporate blogs can be classified into six different categories. Each category shares common characteristics and the blog content can be expected to differ between the categories. The six categories of corporate blogging are Sales blogs, Relationship blogs, Branding blogs, Knowledge blogs, Collaboration blogs, and Culture blogs.

The advantages of corporate blogging are:

1) Build rapport with customers. Through the publish of a corporate blog, the company is giving their customers a channel to interact and get to know their brand and organisation in a format that they’re familiar and comfortable with.

2) Free feedback and suggestions from key constituents. Corporate blogging gives the company insights to what people are saying about their products, their brand, their competitors, their marketing from the comfort of their office chair.

3) Increased website traffic from higher search engine rankings. It is Because blogs are so easy to publish, the company can adding new content to their website more frequently. Search engines favour websites with fresh content and ranks their blog higher in search results, which in turn results in a greater number of referrals from search engines to their website and blog.

4) Position the company business as a thought leader. One of the most effective marketing strategies is “Show, don’t tell”. The company can use their corporate blog to take advantage of this strategy by demonstrating their expertise and experience in their industry through commentary, guides, analysis, etc. The quality of their blog content reflects the quality of their organisation.

References:
http://www.backbonemedia.com/blogsurvey/
http://www.corporateblogging.info/basics/corporatebloggingprimer.pdf
http://www.netdynasty.com/articles/pr/corporate blogs/

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies

The Electronic Government initiative was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It will improve both how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses; simultaneously, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

The vision of Electronic Government can refer to the link of http://www.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm.

The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows:
1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

Other than these seven main projects under e-government flagships, several government agencies has also initiated online services for the public projects, aims to increase the ease and efficiency of public service to the people. Among others were Malaysian Government’s Official Portal (myGovernment), e-Tanah, e-Consent, e-Filing, e-PBT, Pensions Online Workflow Environment (POWER), and e-SILA. For more information about all this can refer to the link as below:

1. http://www.gov.my/MyGov/BI/Directory/Citizen/Home.htm
2. http://www.etanah.gov.my/etanah/main.php
3. http://www.google.com.my/search?hl=en&q=e-Consent&meta=
4. http://www.agc.gov.my/agc/Pencen/Borang/borang.htm
5. http://esila.jpa.gov.my/portaljpa.php




















The common problems encountered by consumers are troublesome if the computer system is broke down, the service will be very slow because of the human being, the consumers need to wait too long to proceed their things. Besides, the older people do not have computer skill, so they do not know how to process their things through the computerized system.

Since there has problem faced by the consumers, I suggest that government can always observe and make sure their computerized system are well managed, and do not disturb their daily work. In addition, distribute some staff to perform service for the older people who do not computer skill to help them to process their things through the computerized system.

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies

Mobile Money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It unlocks the power of the mobile phone to make payments, allowing registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service). This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products online and pay the merchant using his/her mobile phone without being physically present at the store.

When it comes to online selling, selecting a payment gateway is one of the major obstacles faced by the merchants in Malaysia. There are too few choices available, worse; none of these limited choices are cost effective. This problem has been addressed by Mobile Money, since it allows merchants to take online order without the need for online shopper to disclose their credit card information. For more information, you can go to visit the website as http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp.

Mobile Money will encourage more consumers to shop online. This will definitely be a great boon to the e-commerce industry in Malaysia. It will surely encourage more merchants to adopt online selling as an extra sales channel which complement perfectly with their offline sales channel to help them sell more of their goods and services. This feature allows merchants to accept payment via Mobile Money and process the payment in real time within clicks.

Mobile Money functions like a Credit Card if a shopper applies for a "Pay by Mobile Phone" credit card account (eg Hong Leong Mobile Credit Card). The shopper will be billed by the bank accordingly by month's end. In addition, it functions as a Debit Card if it is tied to shopper's savings or current account. The amount will be deducted instantly from the account upon successful transaction.

Credit Card Debts: causes and prevention

Nowadays, credit card debts are major cause of bankruptcies each year. It is because many people have never realized of its consequences from financial and non financial perspectives when get a new credit card or not enough safety net when there is an incident happen.

Causes:
Poor money management is one of the best reasons that why so many families have accumulated many credit card debts. It is because people are unaware to conduct a monthly spending plan and do not keep track of monthly bills. People have never realized their spending on the items that are useless and do not have any value in their life. Thus, it has lead to a rise in debts by using credit cards.
Second, Credit card will probably become one of the sources of funds to pay off the medical expenses if health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills if one of your family members suffers serious illness. In United States, almost everyone pays their medical expenses by credit cards to get treatment.

Prevention
Firstly, user should create a budget and stick to it. A clear budget that includes all of your monthly bills, food, entertainment and miscellaneous items will prevent you from spending thoughtlessly and buying on impulse
Secondly, user also can maintain clear financial records and a regular payment schedule. Disorganization can cause you to overlook bills and overestimate how much you have to spend. Dedicate a specific time every month (just after payday is best) when you can sit down with your finances, pay your bills and determine how much you have to spend for the month ahead.

Referred links:
1.http://www.mozdex.com/prevent-credit-card-debt/ 2.http://ezinearticles.com/?Understanding-Credit-Card-Debt-Problems&id=1225936 3.http://www.fastweb.com/fastweb/resources/articles/index/102925 4.http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debt_manage_2004/top-10-causes.asp
5.http://www.ehow.com/how_2080761_avoid-bankruptcy.html

The threat of online security: How save is our data?

Most businesses that have made the move towards an online presence have experienced some kind of security threat to their business. Since the Internet is a public system in which every transaction can be tracked, logged, monitored and stored in many locations, it is important for businesses to understand possible security threats to their business.
Security has three main concepts: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Confidentiality allows only authorized parties to read protected information. Integrity ensures data remains as is from the sender to the receiver. Availability ensures you have access and are authorized to resources.

There are many threats to e-commerce that may come from sources within an organization or individual. The followings are some of the potential security threats that can be found.

(a) Tricking the shopper - It is one of the easiest and most profitable attacks, also known as social engineering techniques. These attacks involve surveillance of the shopper’s behavior, gathering information to use against the shopper.

(b)Snooping the shopper's computer - Most users’ knowledge of security vulnerabilities of their systems is vague at best. Additionally, software and hardware vendors, in their quest to ensure that their products are easy to install, will ship products with security features disabled. In most cases, enabling security features requires a non-technical user to read manuals written for the technologist. The confused user does not attempt to enable the security features. This creates a treasure trove for attackers.

(c)Sniffing the network - Here, the attacker monitors the data between the shopper’s computer and the server. He collects data about the shopper or steals personal information, such as credit card numbers.

(d)Using known server bugs - The attacker analyzes the site to find what types of software are used on the site. He then proceeds to find what patches were issued for the software. Additionally, he searches on how to exploit a system without the patch. He proceeds to try each of the exploits. The sophisticated attacker finds a weakness in a similar type of software, and tries to use that to exploit the system. This is a simple, but effective attack.

The example of current threat of online security are as follow:

(a) Automated SQL Injection Attacks: Over the past few months, IBM X-Force has seen an escalation of SQL injection and other web-related attacks. In the past few weeks, these attacks have culminated into automated SQL injection attacks that, in some cases, have systematically defaced websites.

(b)Active Exploitation - Adobe Flash Player RCE: Several reports have stated that a zero-day Flash vulnerability is being exploited through several Chinese hacker websites. All of the samples X-Force has seen target the vulnerability disclosed in this Advisory, and X-Force has confirmed that the IPS protection released in November of 2007 does block these samples that are circulating in the wild.

Electronic Currency

Electronic money, also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. Also, it is a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies enabling it.

Electronic currency is essentially a system that allows a person to pay for goods or services by transmitting a number from one computer to another. These transactions are carried out electronically, transferring funds from one party to another, by either a debit or credit. These funds are instantly cleared and secured by using strong encryption, thus eliminating the payment risk to the consumer. It is only a matter of time before electronic currency will replace the present monetary systems. Thus, electronic currency is the digital representation of money, or more accurately, the digital representation of currency.

Digital Currency is also known as Electronic Currency. Digital Currencies are able to provide privacy to their customers, and still be able to guarantee that they are not being used for money laundering. Digital Currencies are "orthogonal" to the traditional financial world. As long as all the money coming in and out goes through banks with anti-money laundering practices in place, then money laundering is impossible. Furthermore, all of the Digital Currencies in business at this time are firmly committed to discouraging crime and money laundering, while at the same time protecting the privacy of their account holders. This means you can use Digital Currencies to do business with confidence that you are in good company!

Reference:
http://centregold.ca/
http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v6n3/ishman63.html
http://www.nowpublic.com/what_is_digital_currency_digital_money_real_cash

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

Third-party certification is a scientific process by which a product or service is reviewed by a reputable and unbiased third party to verify that a set of criteria, claims or standards are being met. Certification Authority (CA) is a trusted third party in a public key security system is responsible for vouchsafing the identity of users and issuing them with certificates that bind the public key to their identities.

MSC Trustgate.com was established in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia under the Digital Signature Act 1997. MSC Trustgate.com provides security solutions and trusted services to help companies build a secure network and application infrastructure for their electronic transactions and communications over the network. MSC Trustgate.com commitment in delivering high quality services has brought them recognitions with the enterprises, government, and many leading e-commerce sites, both locally and internationally. MSC Trustgate.com state-of-the-art data center located in Cyberjaya is one of the most advanced in ASEAN and conforms to IT security standard, Orange Book Tier 4. All of MSC Trustgate.com consultants undergo a stringent certification process and continuous training programs and are well experienced in deploying large-scale projects.

Moreover, MSC Trustgate.com is an affiliate of Verisign Inc. for the South East Asian region and a member of the Verisign Trust Network. MSC Trustgate.com is membership allows its customers to enjoy a globally recognized service that is compatible with the existing technological requirements. It offers market leading trust services, including authentication and validation, needed by websites, enterprises, and e-commerce service providers to conduct trusted and secure electronic commerce and communications over IP networks.

Besides that, MSC Trustgate.com also establishing a payment infrastructure based on the Secure Electronic Transaction protocol. SET is endorsed by Bank Negara and MEPS and enables internet based payment transactions using credit cards.

Reference:
http://www.msctrustgate.com/
http://www.trademal.com/global/index.php/id/17463/MSC_Trustgate_com_Sdn_Bhd/index.html
http://www.technopreneurdevelopment.net.my/Techno/PwrSearch/List.asp?keyword=trustgate

How to safeguard OUR personal and financial data

Nowadays, we always exposed our personal information, names, addresses, phone numbers, and identity card number, bank and credit card number and other financial data to other parties such as government institutes, e-commerce companies, website operator, financial institutions and friends by accidentally or as require by those parties. Sometimes, we may wonder to know, how can make our personal and financial data more secure and being protected by not reveal it to that irrelevant party and prevent financial data from being used illegally by third parties. These are some advices are given to individual concerning how to prevent personal and financial data.
Firstly we should always keep our receipts, bank account statements, credit-card bills, or even addressed direct mail (DM). However, if people want to throw away these documents as trash, they should shred them first. Secondly, we have to pay attention and alert to regular mail such as monthly bills or bank account statements if there is any delay of deliver, to find out whether they have been stolen or any other reasons. Next, do not reveal any personal information or particularly passwords to anyone. After using any of the Financial Data Center or member services, must remember to log out properly before leaving the Financial Data Center.
Meanwhile, we also have to keep our card close to us. Whether you are out shopping or eating out, watch how clerks handle your card. Then take your receipt with you and never throw it away in a public place and should pay attention when using an ATM and keep your eyes peeled for anyone who seems a little too interested in your transactions. Use your free hand to shield the keypad when entering your PIN. Besides that, banker can add on fingerprint scanning on ATM machine. Some more, keep credit cards to a minimum. It only keeps the ones you actually use and destroy any that you no longer use by shredding them.
We should aware that personal and financial data should be threat as private and confidential in anyway and anytime. By using proper ways to protect our personal and financial data are same as protect our own personal safety. All of us should be concern about this issue and must takes care our own right.

Further information can refer below website:
http://ecommerze.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/how-to-safeguard-personal-financial-data/ 17 Jun 2008
http://qlignrinayi.blogspot.com/2008/06/how-to-safeguard-our-personal-and.html%2021%20June%202008
http://amazingcommerce.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/how-to-safeguard-our-personal-and-financial-data/ 18 June 2008

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user's information.

The following is the example of phishing:-

The above phishing scam said that if you did not initiate the log ins, please visit PayPal as soon as possible to log in and perform the steps necessary to restore your account access, and the link is provided at the bottom of the page, if you click the link, you will be serious because the link will be opened in the new page, and it is asking you to key in your personal information and submit it to them, after you submit it, one of them maybe use your information for some other purpose like apply loan and so on.

Since there is very serious in phishing scam, there have several methods to prevent phishing scam are as below:-
1. Keep antivirus up to date – One of the most important things you can do to avoid phishing attacks is keep your antivirus software up-to-date because most antivirus vendors have signatures that protect against some common technology exploits. This can prevent things such as a Trojan disguising your Web address bar or mimicking an https secure link. If your antivirus software is not up-to-date, you are usually more susceptible to attacks that can hijack your Web browser and put you at risk for phishing attacks.

2. Do not click on hyperlinks in e-mails – It is never a good idea to click on any hyperlink in an e-mail, especially from unknown sources. You never know where the link is going to really take you or whether it will trigger malicious code. Some hyperlinks can take you to a fake HTML page that may try to scam you into typing sensitive information. If you really want to check out the link, manually retype it into a Web browser.

3. Verify https (SSL) – Whenever you are passing sensitive information such as credit cards or bank information, make sure the address bar shows "https://" rather than just "http://" and that you have a secure lock icon at the bottom right hand corner of your Web browser. You can also double-click the lock to guarantee the third-party SSL certificate that provides the https service. Many types of attacks are not encrypted but mimic an encrypted page. Always look to make sure the Web page is truly encrypted.

4. Don't enter sensitive or financial information into pop-up windows - A common phishing technique is to launch a bogus pop-up window when someone clicks on a link in a phishing e-mail message. This window may even be positioned directly over a window you trust. Even if the pop-up window looks official or claims to be secure, you should avoid entering sensitive information because there is no way to check the security certificate. Close pop-up windows by clicking on the X in the top-right corner. Clicking cancel may send you to another link or download malicious code.

References:-

1. http://www.krowenlaw.com/defphishing.htm.

2. http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/ss/phishing_7.htm, 2008.

3. http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5818568.html?tag=rbxccnbtr1, 2008.

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

An example of an E-Commerce success is Amazon.com. Amazon.com is presently ruling the Internet business with its best marketing techniques and expertise in relation to the market trends and demands of its customers. It is the only website that contains altogether web books, business brands and retails on a single web-based business. Amazon.com does not only leads to sale books but also offer a variety of electronic items as well as video, music, health and fitness, wireless cell phones, automobile, house holds, gifts, software, hardware, kitchen utensils and many more stuff. It therefore contains items related to all ages, all interests and all fields as well as all areas. On the other hand Amazon.com has significantly grabbed the electronic business by selling its online books and now electronic items and other stuff.

The effective management in the market lead Amazon.com to achieve tremendous success in the filed of e-commerce. It in true sense made business via Internet a wealthy way to improve profits and increase revenues. The strategy to work better and adopting a strong base of selling products marks Amazon.com different from the rest of the e-commerce organizations. Furthermore, the efficiency in dealing the customers and making them a priority as providing exceptional customer services continuously focus on them, makes Amazon.com on top of all the other e-commerce companies. Nonetheless the determination to achieve its goal to build the most customer-centric company of the universe with the ability to offer a healthy customer service both domestically as well as internationally has marked a great difference among the competitors of e-commerce since the last few years. In order to achieve success in their goals they hire local employees in foreign countries as they did in Germany and U.K. this not only helped them gathering information about the local market and the demand of the people of these countries but also introduced more channels and branches of Amazon.com in these foreign countries to provide them a familiar look to this e-commerce company. For instance, in United Kingdom Amazon.co.uk and for Germany they made Amazon.de. This was a brilliant idea for attracting the locals of foreign countries towards its business in regard to expansion its customers and increase in profits.

Reference:

http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/companyprofiles/a/Amazon.htm
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?178
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/amazon_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org

An example of an E-commerce failure and its causes:EToys.com

The Internet and the growth of e-commerce have had a revolutionary effect upon business whether it is dealing with other business or whether it is business selling to consumers. Business man have view that the Internet as the perfect medium for start-up venture’s investment to make a quick capital gain. There are many successful examples in E-commerce such as Amazon.com, Google.com, E-bay.com and etc. However, they are no guarantee that all companies will success in e-commerce, it may because of they are not able to face the challenges in market by the use of Internet.

EToys.com is one of the top 10 dot-com flops. EToys.com was launched in 1997, it was founded by the CEO, who name Toby Lenk, COO Frank Han and Idealab Founder Bill Gross. EToys seem like the best idea for those busy parents; it offered them a chance to order thousands of toys in every catergory from the comfort of their homes. Beside that the site also had fun features, the features including gift recommendations by age and and information about popular characters, from Madeline to Barney. Etoys also has won a praise for its site design and had technically sophisicated warehouses and fulfillment operation. In 1999 during the Christmas, EToys was suffered a black eye because it failed to deliver some order in time. The first impression for new customers was ruin because of this, and people were worry of using the site again. In August 2000, the Toys"R"Us and Amazon.com has formed a partnership, it put Etoys into risk. EToys went into liquidation in March 2001, Because run out of money and other funding options exhausted.

One of the causes of the EToys.com failure in e-commerce is because of ineffective customer service or misinformation about products and services, example like the failed to deliver the order on time would destroy the image of the company, and the first impression of new customers. Customer will not feel confidence and afraid to use the site again. However, the negative response from customers is also another cause which will lead the dot-com filed into bankruptcy in E-business. This is why the reputation of a company is very important, once it is ruined; peoples will loose the confidence in such company again. For example, if the E-business fails to deliver on time, the customer will not return and they will share with their friends about their bad experience. Third, maybe effect of the errors in the company's Web site. Sometimes hundreds of errors could be found in one Web page, this is due to peoples will be frustrated to visit or log in to the company’s Web site. Beside that, inability to define clearly and to understand the market demand, the needs of the customer, or their buying habits of the marketing strategy, if it is not immensely enough or is ineffective, is another reason for failure.
Because of the causes stated above, many dot-coms have fall into liquidation. Therefore, in order to avoid the failure of an e-commerce company, useful of business strategies, and effective, strong organisational, and customer relation policies to meet the demands of its valuable customers are the key elements of the successfulness in e-commerce.

Self-introduction- Jonie Chang Siew Fah

hello...my friends..let me introduce myself to all of u..my name is Chang Siew Fah, I am from Kampar. After i finish my Diploma in Kampar branch, i wish to further study, then i apply Utar in Sg Long. Now, i am persuading accounting course in Utar, Sg Long. I already study one in Utar, Sg Long..that mean one more left for me to finish my study..hehe..
Actually, the hobbies that i like it most is...sleeping..haha..but i also like listen music, watch movie as well..sometimes, when i so bore, i also like do some exercise for example jogging, play badminton.
Well for the website that i most frequent view is yahoo, google, friendster, emule, and msn. I like use google n yahoo to seach information that i need, it is a very useful search engine, it help me a lot in my study. Somemore i can get the latest information by online by juzt key in what type of news that i want to take a look. Then i also like to use emule 2 watch movie..the newest movie, for the friendster and msn i use it to keep in touch with my friends, who far away from me and i also like chatting with them when i am bored.
These all is something about me..Thank You...

History and evolution of e-commerce

Well, let me give a short brief about E-Commerce. E-Commerce also know as Electronic Commerce, is the buying and selling of products and services over the Internet. Much like traditional commerce, there is an exchange of goods, instead of at the location of the store, it conducted online and make use of technologies such as electronic data interchange, email, electronic fund transfers or smart cards to receive payment and keep track of transactions.

Ecommerce shall create products and services with the best possible quality we can deliver, which innovatively helps individuals and businesses, humans, to focus themselves on their core businesses.Besides, It must be each individual’s personal request to eliminate any source of wastefulness and therefore seek for the highest possible usefulness.

At the close of the 20th century, the bulk of e-commerce transactions were retail transaction as security and encryption technology over the Internet improved. The explosive growth in e-commerce is largely due to the expansion of the Internet in the late 1990s. Soon, companies like eBay created a new aspect of e-commerce: the C2C transaction.

Nowaday, E-Commerce became the ideal medium for markets to experiment with adjustments in their store environments and promotions to reach the most effective target market. Companies can use the information they get from their e-commerce sites to find out what products are selling, where the bulk of their customers come from, and what promotions & sales bring in the most consumers. In conclude I believe, it will become main medium that connect all people around the world in future.

website that can be refer: http://www.iit.edu/~peacjen/ecommerce/background.htm

How E-Commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees’ empowerment and facilitate customer support

E-Commerce can reduce cycle time by using electronic devices to communicate internally between collegues in each departments, and externally between customers, suppliers, and other outsiders. The use of e-mail, intranets, msn helps speed the transmission of information. These tools also facilitate quick access to information, expertise, and knowledge, and thus empower employees.

An inter-company, application-to-application communication of data in standard format for business transactions, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a set of standards for structuring information that is to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses, organizations, government entities and other groups. The standards describe structures that emulate documents, for example purchase orders to automate purchasing. The term EDI is also used to refer to the implementation and operation of systems and processes for creating, transmitting, and receiving EDI documents. The use of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), via the Internet or extranets, supports collaboration between people in different places. It also enables a company to offer better customer service online, and facilitates collaboration with all partners.

The application that indicate the improve employees’ empowerment is Comprehensive Management Application. A downloadable, client facing e-commerce management application, the Commerce Assistant(SM) enables clients to manage and edit hundreds of critical details concerning their e-commerce activities. More comprehensive and responsive than web-based functionality and scalability, software companies use the Commerce Assistant to view order histories, manage partners, run real-time reports, analyze multi-variate testing results, implement marketing campaigns and facilitate customer support, cost-effectiveness, intuitive features, among other activities.

Reference:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchange, 12/6/2008.
2. http://www.linux-mag.com/id/3676, 1999 - 2008.

Self-introduction: Giselle Hee Yuen Ping

Hi...my dear friend, nice to meet you all...

Firstly, lets me introduced myself. My name is Hee Yuen Ping, or you can just called me Giselle. I am come from Perak, live at a small town which called Bidor. I am an ordinary girl with hobby and likes as usual people have. I like swimming, traveling, shopping and so on. Instead, I also like go to cinema watch movie with my dear friend during weekend. The movie that i mostly like is "The Rock Of The Ring". I watched it two times at cinema with my friends.Besides, sport also my favourate hobby. Currently, I like swimming wit my freinds when free. I always believe that exercising will lead you to good health. Besides, it can also enhance your blood circulation and also can keep fit!Ha ha, that's my simple life...

To me, family and friends are everything. They are the one who make our life more interesting and meaningful. I hope to take good care of my family members. I hope to make their life more interesting and meaningful. For example, taking them for a family trip to the United states, Australia and other places for free to enable them to experience all the wonderful things in life.

Somemore, I also like online during weekend, the web site which I most like such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, www.friendster.com, www.youtube.com, www.sinchew.com and www.verycd.com so on. Such web site are useful for me to search for some information while doing assignment, chat with friends and search some entertainment. Among the web site I am mentioned, the one that I always used is www.verycd.com, which allowed me download drama, movie. Online is important for me to improve my knowledge and knowing the latest information around the world even though I stay at home.

That's all of my simply introduction. Thank you.

Self-introduction-Pui Sim

Hello everybody, lets start introduce myself first. My name is Chan Pui Sim, I am coming from Ipoh. I start studying in UTAR since in May 2007. Before I studied in UTAR, I am studied Diploma in TARC and taken Diploma of Accounting. After finished my Diploma level, I'm continually taken Bachelor of Commerce (HONS) Accounting in year 3 semester 1 now. My hobby is listen music, watching drama, sleeping, eating, and many more. The reason that I like listen music and watching drama is can make me more relax. Sleeping can make me calm down my stress. I like to eat because I like to try the food that I never eat before.

The top 5 websites that I like are as follows:-

1. www.google.com
2. www.friendster.com
3. www.yahoo.com
4. www.baidu.com
5. www.verycd.com

The reason that I like the websites such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com is can search more information through this 2 websites. Besides, I like to visit www.friendster.com is to chat with my friends that seldom see each others. In addition, I search the websites such as www.baidu.com, and www.verycd.com is to download song and drama as well.

The internet activities that I like are as follows:-

1. download song
2. download drama
3. chatting
4. find information
5. watch current news
6. watch band competitions

That's all about me, hope you all can enjoy eternal summer for you blog.

self-introduction-Chiou Ling

Hello...Welcome to eternal summer for you.

Let me introduce myself first. My name is Chien Chiou Ling. I come from Sarawak, Sibu. Now i taking Bachelor in Commerce (Hons) Accounting at UTAR, Sg Long. I like sleeping, watching drama and msn when i am free. I like to sleep because sleeping is important to recharge my daily energy. So, everyday i wish i can sleep more than 8 hour. I like to watch drama because watching drama can make me relax when i was stress on my study,mid term and final exam. Finally i like to play msn, it is because through the msn, i can increase the friendship with my friends, especially those friends that seldom chat or meet.

The top five webste that i visited the most is http://www.yahoo.com/, http://www.google.com/, http://www.friendster.com/, http://www.skyme.com/, and http://www.airasia.com/. The purpose that i visited yahoo and google wedsite the most is to find infomation and check mail. Beside that, i also visited friendster website, it is because friendster can let me keep in touch with my friends. Then, i like to visited skyme wedsite because i can download the drama from that wedsite. Lastly,i like to visited airasia website, as you know, i come from Sarawak, everytime when i go back my hometown i need to take airplane. So, i always visited airasia website to check the cheaper price, so that i can book the flight with the cheaper price.

That's all about me and hope you will enjoy eternal summer for you blog. Thanks^.^